


The Pros and Cons of Remaining Neutral

by Monobear (Popuko)



Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: F/M, Female Frisk
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-05-26
Updated: 2016-05-26
Packaged: 2018-07-10 08:26:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,244
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6975436
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Popuko/pseuds/Monobear
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Having a good, friendly family is something Frisk hasn't experienced before. But when having said family results in her falling in love with her so-called uncle, things turn out to be far more complicated than she'd ever expect. Features Fem!Frisk.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Pros and Cons of Remaining Neutral

Time still progressed within resets. That was the first thing she had to note was the most important thing. She was still aging, even if no one else was - or seemed to realize it, at least. Most monsters still assumed she was a kid based on the striped shirt she had that got more and more snug with every reset, but she'd at least spent the timespan between the age of 10 to 19 in the Underground. Everyone still treated her like a kid, and she wasn't one to object - she hadn't known much more before she had fallen, after all. So it was...whatever. She was intent on making it through, and when she finally did, she wasn't sure exactly what she was going to do from that point onwards. It'd be rather strange for an adult woman to go back to the family she hadn't seen in 9 years - 9 years, she still had to remind herself, 9 years - and say 'hello! I'm your child, Frisk!' Especially when she wasn't certain exactly if the human world was effected by the resets or not. So when Toriel had questioned if she'd something else to do - if she wanted to leave...

"No. I want to stay with you, mom."

Toriel was thrilled, even if she seemed surprised. Everyone else seemed equally happy to keep her around - Papyrus had made some kind of statement to the effect of "OF COURSE SHE WANTS TO STAY WITH US!! WE'RE THE MOST COOL PEOPLE SHE COULD STAY WITH!!! WELL, THAT I KNOW OF, AT LEAST." Sans had given his younger brother a pat on the side, as if to tell him to cool it a bit, and Papyrus had merely grinned in return. Frisk couldn't help but laugh at the sight. At least she'd gotten to know each and every monster well enough for them to be her new family.  She'd helped them with their problems - back when she was still 12, helping Papyrus with his 'first date' (which got less awkward the older she was, at least), making friends with Undyne, getting Alphys and Undyne together - and by her side the entire time was Sans, always seeming to pop up whenever she needed some kind of reassuring distraction from the stress that 'THE FATE OF ALL MONSTERS DEPENDS ON YOU, HUMAN'. 

Being the savior of the monster world got stressful. A lot. And determination didn't make up for everything.

But Sans never seemed to take anything too seriously, and if she were a lesser person, she'd perhaps be envious of that. How was he able to keep it together most of the time? It seemed almost impossible. Yet years later when she'd reached the judgment hall, she'd realized the truth. He didn't have it together, he just kept it quiet. Perhaps that was even more admirable, in its own way. Even if it was concerning, she wouldn't say anything. When they got onto the surface, it kept pressing at her quite often, but everything had calmed. They'd all managed to get homes (as an 'apology present' from human authorities, after a few diplomatic statements...Frisk did wonder every now and then how she would've handled that if she were still a child. Probably a lot of hard staring on her part, coupled with the implication of 'you wouldn't send a child out on the streets, would you?' It was devious in its own way, and she had to admit, if that were the plan from the start, that was fairly harsh. But you had to do what you had to do, she supposed, and it was a really good thing she'd managed the art of having a silver tongue as she aged.) 

So Frisk, Toriel, and a very reluctant Flowey (Frisk had retrieved him on her own after they'd gotten the home, and Toriel wasn't objecting to it too much if only because Frisk had made a very sincere case for the flower not being in a good state of mind in addition to the thought of him being alone in the Underground seeming rather hypocritical and cruel if they were to leave him there, though everyone else had been hesitant, to say the least) had one home, Sans and Papyrus had another, Undyne and Alphys had another, Asgore lived by himself (though Frisk had made certain to visit often). The other monsters had found their own bearings, though some were a bit abnormal (the former Canine Unit of Snowdin had built themselves a home resembling a gigantic doghouse, for instance. It was very comfy, Frisk had to admit. Well designed, too.)

However, the monsters had to live outside of the nearest town. The mayor had said it was because of 'area regulations', but the first time Frisk had gone with Toriel to get groceries, she'd seen it for what it was - monsters got a few look-overs and quite a few disheartening comments. "What _is_ that _thing_?" was one of the most prominent, but more often or not when her presence was noted, it was in the form of "That poor girl. She looks absolutely pathetic. Maybe someone should call the police, get her out of...whatever situation she's in." or something to that nature.

She had lashed out at the first time it was said - a woman who looked like the absolute definition of too rich to be shopping for groceries (in her mind, at least) had made the comment. Frisk had simply given her a friendly smile in return, and responded with "Perhaps you shouldn't be commenting on how I look with the crow's feet around your eyes. By the by, pink is in, green is out. Learn the trends, darling." And then she'd followed after Toriel, who was stifling a laugh, and so was Frisk after glancing back and seeing the dumbfounded expression of the woman.

Mettaton had later heard of the comment from Toriel and had cracked up laughing. "Just like I taught her! My little darling is smart as a whip!" 

To be honest, Frisk was channeling what Mettaton would've said, anyway, so it was a good thing he was amused by the whole endeavor. Speaking of, the robot hadn't found things to be as easy as he would've hoped on the surface as far as stardom went. Turns out that being the star of the monster world didn't mean much to humans, especially when you looked like a box with legs. When he'd reverted fully to his EX form, people were more adoring, but it was clearly not exactly what he wanted to do, especially with the implication that he was only popular because he looked most like a human out of all the monsters. Napstablook hadn't found things too easy, either, and though originally Mettaton had encouraged him to accept every invitation he got to be on a popular TV show, Blook's presence on Ghost Hunters as REAL LIVING PROOF OF LIFE AFTER DEATH wasn't exactly something that he ended up too thrilled about. No one wanted to hear the ghost's music, just marvel after his existence.

Frisk had been particularly appalled when a talk show had brought him up and compared him to this human cartoon character ghost that couldn't ever make any friends OR be scary like he wanted to be. Blooky had plenty of friends, how dare they! She'd made sure to delete it before anyone else saw it on the recording list, but something told her that news had traveled back to the ghost anyway considering he'd become more of a homebody than usual afterwards (which was almost an impressive feat, honestly). 

Sans had taken on at least 6-7 jobs to support himself and Papyrus. Everyone else had offered to pool funds so they could all live comfortably, but Sans had insisted, using a variety of excuses as to why he wanted to do it "it's what i'm used to", "i need the work after slacking off so much anyway, hehe", "don't worry about me, i'll be fine", "i need to do it so papyrus looks up to me." But from what Papyrus had said, every night Sans came home, he collapsed with exhaustion on the couch, not even being able to get to his room. In addition, from what you could tell, most of the jobs he'd gotten were things where no one could see him, much like all the other monsters. Out of sight, out of mind, it never looked good for an employer to hire a monster. At least they were hiring them at all.

Toriel seemed to be out of luck concerning employment. She'd tried to establish her school for monsters, but she had no degree of any sort in teaching, the mayor had practically scoffed at the idea, and she was still working at it. She had hope that it'd happen someday, she just had to work at it. Frisk had to appreciate her optimism, at least. Seeing Toriel remain optimistic, despite the obstacles thrown against her...it filled Frisk with determination. Asgore had tried to help perhaps eventually get it established, and despite Toriel's initial reluctance, she'd genuinely thanked him when it was clear that he was genuinely making an effort.

It was a shame that the deck of life was practically stacked against all of the monsters, though. Frisk amongst them as well. When Frisk had tried to get herself employment - she had to support her mother somehow - she'd barely gotten a job at a place that was crappy enough to send all of Burgerpants's stories of MTTBurger really into perspective. She was at least good with numbers, so she was the one running the register and taking orders, but every time she was recognized, it wasn't in a positive way. Even one of her coworkers had referred to her - 'I can't believe I'm working with that monster diplomat, or whatever. what a freak. Probably fucking every single beast in the creepy-ass almost-fictional kingdom. That's why she's so slow, her ass probably hurts from being pounded into.' She hadn't said anything about it, but when the same girl had smiled at her and invited her out for a small get-together with the rest of the employees after work, she'd immediately turned her down and walked home.

Conveniently for her mood, it was also raining that day.

The human had dragged herself inside at the end of it all, soaking wet, frustrated, and she collapsed onto the couch, her face pressed into one of the cushions when she'd heard a familiar voice speak up. "jeez, kid. you okay?" She pulled her head up to look up at Sans (a very unfamiliar thing to do, considering his stature compared to everyone else), admittedly not having the most cheerful expression on her face. "...yeah, okay, ya look the most jaded someone could be on a friday. somethin' happen, buddo? you can tell your good 'ol uncle sans."

"Let's just put it at other people are horrible and I do not like them. At all." Frisk flatly commented, blowing a bit of her brown hair out of her eyes. Sans shrugged, his usual ever-present grin on his face.

"yeah, i can get that. i'm not exactly the biggest fan of other people either. it's, uh..." His grin disappeared slightly, looking a bit more reluctant and concerned. "...it's not somethin' real bad, is it?"

Frisk let out a long sigh. "No. Just the usual." Perhaps she was more tired than usual, but she was feeling rather blunt. "I'm a 19 year old adult woman--"

"you're an adult?" Sans had tried to lighten the mood a bit, an amused tone to his voice. "huh, never noticed."

"--ha." Frisk snorted, then went on. "I'm an adult woman living with a bunch of monsters, a good majority of them male. I try to do my job just fine, but no, what does everyone think--" Sans raised a hand, wincing.

"....yeah, i can get what you're getting at. they said something that implied...um..."

"They didn't imply anything. They outright said that I'm some kind of freak, not doing this because I care about everyone, but it's always the--"

"i'm going to be blunt with you." Sans stated, a bit less humor to his tone than usual. "yeah, of course they're going to say that shit, because whoever said that is an idiot. or whatever insulting curse word i can think of to describe 'em, because i've got at least 20 more, and tori probably wouldn't enjoy me tellin' 'em to ya, though i'm sure ya already know at least half. you just gotta keep goin' through it, like ya always have. i know it's really crappy because i'm sure they pretended like they didn't say nothin' afterwards, but trust me, just don't bother worryin' about it. they're probably projectin' the life they prolly want onto ya, you feel me? hehe." He'd lightened up a bit at the end there, which had at least gotten Frisk to crack a bit of a smile. "there's my buddo. see, 's all okay."

"...mmn." Frisk gently nodded, Sans leaning down a bit and running a hand through her hair.

"ya look exhausted, anyway. which's probably part of it." He'd mumbled, taking a seat next to her and continuing to reassuringly run a hand through her hair.

"...." Frisk had gently crawled over, putting her head onto her so-called uncle's lap, a small smile on her face.

"pssh. comfy now, kid?"

"Yes."

"good."

 


End file.
